Moving??

I haven't been totally happy with blogspot so for now I've moved to the following sight. There is still a question as to whether this will be permanent, but for now testing the waters is in full swing.

North Portland Bible College

This afternoon Linda and I attended the 25th Anniversary Celebration of North Portland Bible College. NPBC is a community-based, inter-denominational, evangelical school with classes offered primarily in the evenings to accommodate employed students. It offers both an associate degree program and four certificate programs. The board, faculty and student body at NPBc are multi-ethnic and multi-denominational. Course content often provides a foundation for racial and religious reconciliation and positive cross-cultural relationships.

The amazing thing is that this small inner-city Bible College has been providing an excellent education for those who often times for multiple reasons a unable to attend other learning institutions. NPBC has trained and equipped literally hundreds of men and women for kingdom ministry. This is a school has served with excellence in the midst of adversity, both physical and financial, serving as a model for what God can with limited resources.

I viewed a video presentation of testimonies from various individuals who had been served by what NPBC offers, who now serve the kingdom of God across the globe. It was just amazing to see what God had done over 25 years with mostly volunteer people and resources. Linda and I were blessed to share in this wonderful celebration. They are looking forward to a wonderful future as God continues to bless.

In addition to all this, I have the privilege of Teaching New Testament this 2007-2008 school year at this beacon of light. I am so looking forward to what the Lord will do in this segment of my journey with Him.

The Jena 6

After viewing the clip below regarding the Jena 6 on a couple of blogs, Rick's and Jamie's, I thought it worthy of posting here as well and deal in a positive way with my anger. There are several other clips available at You Tube regarding this situation.



There is also an online petition you might want to sign after viewing the video clips.

Than, lets remember we still have work to do in regard to race and reconciliation.

The Shack

I just finished reading The Shack by William P. Young. I've had it on my shelf for a while always with the intention of reading it soon. I started it twice but because its not unusual to be reading several books (3-5) at the same time, I'm not always prompt in reading the entirety of a single volume. I was nearly a third of the way through when my daughter Joy came to me asking if I had a good book she could read. Involved with a couple of other books at that moment I loaned her my copy of The Shack. Having some real spiritual depth to her I wanted her opinion before I finished it myself.

Finding it difficult to put down, she finished it quickly and gave it to her husband Matt. He finished it in short order and approached me asking if I had finished reading it. I reminded him than my copy was in his possession. Thrusting my copy which was in his hand at me he said, "hurry up and finish it, I want to talk. This might be the best book I've read." The interesting thing was that he was not the first to say those words; several others had voiced the same thing.

I also gave the book my son James who reads extensively and writes a bit occasionally. So impressed by the book, he ordered a dozen copies to give away. I have another friend who has given 36 copies out. And this book has yet to be released to the public. You can order copies of The Shack at on the book's website.

Its not the best book I've read, but definitely on my Top 10 List. I do agree with Eugene Peterson's blurb on the front cover; "This book has the potential to do for our generation what John Bunyan's Pilgrim's Progress did for his."

There are many good elements to this book, but preeminent is the picture it paints of God the Father, the Son and the Holy Spirit working with and in one person's life in the midst of great tragedy. A fresh perspective of the Godhead that is authentic, real and engaging. I believe the narrative and truths therein will be welcomed by many within contemporary culture. I'll probably say more about this wonderful book later.

missio Dei Group

I recently met a new friend Dan Steigerwald who with his wife Ann and their two daughters moved to Portland a year ago from the Netherlands. His heart is to network and develop partnerships that will send healthy Christ-centered leaders and teams who will start missional initiatives and churches in the urban centers of the Pacific Northwest.

To start he has invited several individuals from the Portland/Vancouver area who have a similar passion to join a Missio Group. Linda and I have been invited to join Missio. As Dan describes it, Missio will be a face to face learning community that gathers regularly to stimulate each participant’s natural missional engagement with their neighborhood, workplace(s) and social network. The format envisaged is a weekly small group experience over three or four months involving conversations about how we might join Jesus in the missio Dei (mission of God) within our contexts. This includes discussions about how to apprentice disciples in their “missional formation.” Attention is also given to thoughtful interaction over how we might help seed a misional DNA within existing and new churches. It is hoped that Missio might become a proto-type for a group learning experience that is reproducible within local churches and other expressions of Christ-centered community around Portland.

The following are some of the questions we will be discussing.

What does it mean to be “missional” and why it matters?
How might we “live prophetically” in our context?
What does it take to make friends with those who’ve yet to know Christ?
What does incarnational living look like in practice?
What does evangelism look like and what is the message we speak/live?
Why Christianize everything when there’s already great waves to catch?
What is “time-banking” and how does it foster community?
How does spiritual formation relate to missional church?
What does it look like to be creatively missional?
How do we form and link local communities for maximum missional impact?
What have we learned and how can we pass it on?

To say I'm excited is somewhat of an understatement. These are questions that not only need to be asked, but also wrestled with, and than applied for the sake of the missio Dei.

Worship As Evangelism

I came across an article on Allelon's website written by Sally Morgenthaler who in 1995 wrote Worship Evangelism: Inviting Unbelievers into the Presence of God. I read her book while still a pastor in a conventional church setting, and encouraged many to read it, because her insights connecting worship to evangelism were extremely insightful.

As I remember, the focus of the book was making conventional church worship more evangelistic; that worship and evangelism go together rather than being separate elements. The result would be another means for presenting the gospel to the un-churched, without compromising the nature and purpose of worship informed by Scripture.

The article titled Worship As Evangelism was originally published in the May/June 2007 issue of Rev! Magazine. What was so striking concerning the article was her transition away from much of what she proposed in her book due to the fact it might have contributed or at least aided in the creation of "worship driven subculture," with the excuse not to do the hard (dirty) work of evangelism. There was idea among some that one could remain inside the walls of a worship center participating in contemporary worship and simultaneously fulfill their evangelistic responsibilities. Worship now becomes the attractional tool for evangelism to occur. Her study revealed that "worship evangelism" type of Sunday worship experience had not attracted to any significant degree the unchurched to enter the church. The article chronicles some of her research regarding the impact of the Worship Evangelism emphasis of the 1990s on the American Church Sunday morning worship service.

The end result might have been a reaffirmation to the conventional church that worship is about where you go and who you worship with rather than what you do and who are 24/7.

Here are a couple of paragraphs in the article I find both refreshing and encouraging.

Conference organizers were confused. They wondered what had happened to me. Where was the worship evangelism warrior? Where was the formula? Where was the pep talk for all those people who were convinced that trading in their traditional service for a contemporary upgrade would be the answer? I don't have to tell you this. The 100-year-old congregation that's down to 43 members and having a hard time paying the light bill doesn't want to be told that the "answer" is living life with the people in their neighborhoods. Relationships take time, and they need an attendance infusion now.

I understood their dilemma, and secretly, I wished I had a magic bullet. But I didn't. And I wasn't going to give them false hope. Some newfangled worship service wasn't going to save their church, and it wasn't going to build God's kingdom. It wasn't going to attract the strange neighbors who had moved into their communities or the generations they had managed\ to ignore for the last 39 years.

What I believe Sally is saying; that true Worship Evangelism is relational engagement with friends and neighbors that involves more time than a once a week hour to hour and a half worship service. It is a commitment of time spent with those individuals we want to see enter into a transformation encounter with the One who is the Savior of the world.

Her closing paragraph in article is worth hearing and pondering:

I am currently headed further outside my comfort zones than I ever thought I could go. I am taking time for the preacher to heal herself. As I exit the world of corporate worship, I want to offer this hope and prayer. May you, as leader of your congregation, have the courage to leave the "if we build it, they will come" world of the last two decades behind. May you and the Christ-followers you serve become worshippers who can raise the bar of authenticity, as well as your hands. And may you be reminiscent of Isaiah, who, having glimpsed the hem of God's garment and felt the cleansing fire of grace on his lips,cried, "Here am I, send me."

I commend the article to you.

40th Wedding Anniversary

Well today the love of my life and I completed 40 years together as husband and wife. One of the more striking features of this day, was the realization that time has passed quickly. It seemed like yesterday when two kids really too young to recognize what they were entering into joined their hearts to voice several "I do's" and began a life journey together.

A journey that has involved multiple ups and downs, a lot of "in sickness and in heal, for better and for worse, in good times and bad," along with four children and ten grandchildren (and counting).

So thankful to the Lord for a life-partner who is a great encourager and supporter, who is both stronger, and wiser than I. A woman who is as beautiful on the inside as she is on the outside. The longer I share life with her, the better it is, and the more my love grows. I love her so much more now than I did back in 1967.

Maybe the greatest feature of this day, is a renewed awareness of how blessed I am - 40 years marked by God's grace and love.

Jesus Missional?

The Word became flesh and blood,
and moved into the neighborhood.
We saw the glory with our own eyes,
the one-of-a-kind glory,
like Father, like Son,
Generous inside and out,
true from start to finish.
John 1:14 (THE MESSAGE)

Organic Essence of the Church

There is no mistaking the fact that “organic” is a current buzzword. In contemporary culture, everything is organic. The reality is that everything has always been organic, but recently the world seems to have awakened to this truth. The dictionary defines organic in the following terms:

1. of or involving the basic makeup of a thing; inherent; inborn; constitutional
2. made up of systematically interrelated parts; organized of, having the characteristics of, or derived from living organisms 3. grown with only animal or vegetable fertilizers, as manure, bone meal, compost, etc.

Organic vegetables have nothing added to them. They are allowed to grow in a ‘natural habitat’ or at least in an artificially created environment that is as natural as possible. My current perspective of the church is organic. Organic in the sense that it discards the additives and preservatives that are current attachments of the institutional church and discovers how the living body of Christ might flourish if allowed to live and grow naturally. Some of these institutional elements (non-organic)are current leadership and administrative structures, programs designed to enhance congregational viability and attractiveness, and resources deemed necessary for churches to function, e.g. buildings, educational materials, financial resources, strategies, long range planning, budgets, etc.

These elements nullify much of the organic nature of the church. The church is best understood in ecological terms. At its core, it is designed by God to be organic both in form and substance. Corresponding to the natural order or eco-system, there is a spiritual order, the body of Christ. To aid in understanding the organic nature the church must consider the ecological sphere.

According to the usual definition, “ecology is the scientific study of the relationship between organisms and their environment in their fullest meaning.” Environment is inclusive of physical, biological, and living components that make up an organism’s surroundings. Relationships include the interactions among the various organisms within the physical world of life forms participating together within a given ecosystem.

The term ecology comes from the Greek words oikos, meaning “the family household,” and logy, meaning “the study of.” Literally, ecology is the study of the household. It has the same root word as “economic,” or “management of the household.” We should consider ecology to be the study of the economics of nature.

The major focus of ecology is the ecosystem. Organisms interact within the context of the ecosystem. The eco part of the word relates to the environment. The system is made up of a collection of related parts that function as a unit. A household is a system consisting of interrelated parts and subparts. Within this household are people who live together, extended family members, and other friends and relationships that are in continual interaction as they recreate, eat, sleep, and work together as interacting parts that support the whole. In this regard, all the parts and components of the Church universal together form an entire eco-system. The organisms of this eco-system are the local congregations, denominations, mission groups, and para-church organizations that are components of the larger Church universal eco-system.

A forest is a natural ecosystem. The physical (abiotic) components are the atmosphere, climate, soil, and water. The biotic components include the different plants and animals that inhabit the forest. The relationships are complex as each organism not only responds to the physical environment but also modifies it and in so doing, becomes part of the environment itself.

Scriptural terminology suggests there are similarities between the Church and an organic eco-system. Organic implies that God grows the church using means that correspond with growth in the natural world. This is illustrated in Jesus’ “Parable of the Sower” as recorded in three of the four gospels, regarding the kingdom of God. From this simple parable, we see that Church begins in the fields, where people are.

Nearly all the New Testament metaphors for the kingdom and the Church use natural organic concepts and identities to describe them. Just as God breathed life into all living creatures (Genesis 2:7), He also breathed life into His Church (John 20:21-23; Acts 2).

As Howard Synder states in LIBERATING THE CHURCH

The church in its most fundamental essence is nothing less than an interdependent, life-pulsating people indwelled by the presence of a resurrected and reigning Christ.

Therefore, the Church is an organic life-form designed by the Spirit to give expression to who Jesus is.

The New Testament employs terms like “household of God,” “the people of God,” “the bride of Christ,” and “fellowship of the Holy Spirit.” Ninety-six word pictures of the church have been identified in the New Testament. “Yet the image that permeates the New Testament understanding of the church and serves as an umbrella for all other metaphors is that of the church as the body of Christ.”

Because these images are so prevalent in Scripture, it is necessary to comprehend the church realistically and correctly in organic terms. Howard Snyder goes on to suggest that the North American Church is in need of a fundamental paradigm shift in its self-understanding, one that would allow us to view the church as part of God’s economy. He states:

Where the model is the institutional-technical-hierarchical of contemporary pop Christianity, a whole set of assumptions follows which make it difficult to really grasp the New Testament picture of the Church. But where the model is that of the body of Christ, the household of God and the community of God’s people, the door is opened to understand the economy and ecology of God and to see the church as charismatic organism….

To be organic is to possess life. And for the church, that life is spiritual, given by the Holy Spirit. The church as the body of Christ is a living social, spiritual, charismatic organism, it is alive. The central biblical images of the church are all organic and ecological: body, bride, family, vine and branches. Even static “building” and “temple” images become organic: “living stones,” “a growing building,” “a temple animated by the Spirit” (see 1 Peter 2:4-6; Ephesians 2:19-22).

The church is a divine organism mystically fused to the living and reigning Christ who continues to reveal himself in a people whom he has drawn to himself. In all dimensions of life and ministry, the church is designed by God to be essentially organic in function and form.

Missional Definition

In all my missional reading, I have yet to come to terms with the definition of the word. In perusing the friend of Missional website, I think the following is short answer is extremely helpful for those of us still struggling a bit with the what it means to be missional.

What is Missional - A Short Answer

"Jesus told us to go into all the world and be his ambassadors, but many churches today have inadvertently changed the "go and be" command to a "come and see" appeal. We have grown attached to buildings, programs, staff and a wide variety of goods and services designed to attract and entertain people.

"Missional is a helpful term used to describe what happens when you and I replace the "come to us" invitations with a "go to them" life. A life where "the way of Jesus" informs and radically transforms our existence to one wholly focused on sacrificially living for him and others and where we adopt a missionary stance in relation to our culture. It speaks of the very nature of the Jesus follower."

---Rick Meigs

Something to Do With God's Help

So here's what I want you to do, God helping you: Take your everyday, ordinary life — your sleeping, eating, going-to-work, and walking-around life — and place it before God as an offering. Embracing what God does for you is the best thing you can do for him. Don't become so well-adjusted to your culture that you fit into it without even thinking. Instead, fix your attention on God. You'll be changed from the inside out. Readily recognize what he wants from you, and quickly respond to it. Unlike the culture around you, always dragging you down to its level of immaturity, God brings the best out of you, develops well-formed maturity in you. Romans 12:1-2 THE MESSAGE)

Weakness as Strength

I think as I age and gain wisdom that I'm learning that my greatest strengths are not what I thought they were. No they are not my leadership or academic achievements, but they are the things I try not to notice and hope others don't see. They are my insecurities, places where I have failed and not achieved to my full potentia; my fears when I'm in the presence of others I consider superior to myself. They seem to be the things that remind me of my own humanity and fallibility. I would really like it the other way around, but the words from Jack Barnard in his book How to Become a Saint: A Beginners Guide really ring true for me:

Our weaknesses really are our greatest assets -- they are not simply strengths held with a bit of modesty. The extent to which we grasp this truth is our own case is the measure of our humility.

Just maybe I'm growing in this area.

Working for Justice

There’s no way to hang onto the Christian faith without taking seriously God’s longing for equality for the total human family. Lots of people have heard of God being just, but they don’t even think about attempting to literally embody that justice. “What does that mean? How much privilege do I have a right to hang onto? How much privilege do I have a right to pass on to my children? Do I have a right to spend all my resources seeing that my children get a university education when other children don’t get any education at all?” That’s privilege. People say, “Well, if I can educate my children, they are then going to use their education to work for compassion and justice.” But that doesn’t normally happen. That education is usually used for self-advancement and perpetuat¬ing the separation.
– Gordon Cosby

I Identfy With These Words

For several years now, my journey has taken me on a much different path (outside the tribal box), which at times has left me feeling alone, but with a new sensitivity in identifying with those who never quite fit in. The problem is that now no longer fitting the denominational mold, I feel like the odd man out, or a square peg in a round hole.

There are two reasons, I mention this. The first is that today began my denomination's annual business sessions of which I will once again participate. For the last few years my anticipation and expectational levels have dropped. The primary reason I participate is quite frankly to maintain some type of tribal relational connection. But I know doing so will require me to once again deal with the awkwardness of not really fitting in.

Secondly, today Len Hjalmarsen posted a comment from Alan Roxburg that I so resonate with regarding my situation.

I spent almost twenty-seven years in a denomination. I thought I ‘belonged’ to the tribe over that time. In recent years I was in situations where I realized that if you didn’t fit the narrative a process of exclusion ensued. None of it was out loud or direct but, nevertheless, it happened… What are the actual, operative theologies at work among such a group? But much more critically, what is the understanding of God and the other that permeates a Christian narrative that can easily put the other outside? .. difference lies at the heart of God’s nature and creation that I have had to rethink not just my theology but my practices and responses to others. Out of this journey I have learned that to welcome the stranger (even the ones in our midst as tribes - and if we can’t do that what can be our basis for Christian witness?) requires a community of men and women shaped around a rule of life ..

For me it was fifteen years. Anyway in the next few days I hoping for more of a tribal welcome this time. There are signs things might be improving.

Helping a Pastor Friend

This last Sunday morning I had the privilege of filling the pulpit for a pastor friend of mine who is really going through some deep struggles in his attempt to move his congregation beyond the four walls of their building in order for them to engage their neighborhood incarnationally with the Gospel of Jesus Christ. The success of his endeavor so far is best minimal.

Once more I found myself with a group of people who have been conditioned to the idea that the pastor is their hired servant that cares for their every need -- physically, emotionally and spiritually. It's what many within the emergent church are calling the "Pastoral Church."

Mike McNichols has written a wonderful article Abandoning the Pastoral Church.

He begins with a quote from a Jurgen Moltmann lecture:
If Christianity is to become aware of what it is, we must abandon the pastoral church which takes care of people, which is the usual form of the Western church. Instead, we have to call to life a Christian community church. Either we set about this church reform by ourselves, or it will be forced on us by the loss of church members. (The Source of Life, p. 96)

The church I spoke at along with many struggling congregations would do well to heed these words.

This realization came to me as I witnessed this congregation struggle through their prayer time by asking for requests. As I recall there were somewhere between twelve to fifteen requests voiced by the congregants, and all of them focused on someone's physical need; both individuals present and those that were absent. Not one request involved anyone in their sphere of influence who might be in need of salvation. What a tragedy.

Here I was once again in midst of a group of dear Christian people who had forgotten how to get beyond themselves. More concerned with Aunt Martha hangnail than the lostness of their friends and neighbors. Yes, as I spoke, I graciously drew their attention to this deficit. But what is alarming, is the propensity of many of us within the confines of the western church, with the very same mindset. But what the heck, its the pastor's job do that -- isn't it.

In this case, it occurs within a congregation whose primary mission is to keep the building open so they have a place to gather on Sunday mornings. Never mind that they lack the financial resources to pay the pastor adequately or keep the heat on in the winter. Just so long as they have a place to gather in order to focus on their own physical and personal needs, and of course have the pastor take care of them.

I just wonder what would happen (what God would do) if they begin to pray for the lost and engage their community with the gospel of Jesus Christ. We will probably never know. I left Sunday morning with a fresh impetus to pray for my friend who pastors this difficult congregation and yes, the congregation too.

Why Transform?

I recently began a coaching and mentoring ministry called LIFESTRIDE PATHWAYS which is linked to this blog. In an effort to stay current on coaching and related issues I subscribe to several online newsletters. In an e-newsletter from The 5-Minute Coach; asks the question, "Why Transform?" and follows with a rather profound answer. Here it is:

In this world we have 2 choices regarding the type of life we want to have. We must choose between the high road and the safe road.

Most people select the safe road because it is easier, on some level. When you make this choice you live a safer life. In this life you make choices based on fear instead of joy. You choose the safe career, the safe relationship and the safe friends. You choose the merry-go-round. It's the safe ride at the fair.

However, when looking back on your life many years later, you realize that you did not leave your distinct footprint behind. You survived but you did not thrive.

When you choose the high road (the hard road) you are choosing the experience of life without limits. You choose to get off the merry-go-round and hop on the roller coaster. This road is filled with ups and downs and moments of uncertainty. You live to the fullest knowing that you are expanding and growing beyond you wildest imagination.

This road requires the transformation of your spirit. When you decide to transform your life you are taking the high road, the more difficult and rewarding road. As you move to higher levels you will live the life you truly deserve. In addition, you become a beacon of hope for others who are looking for an inspiration to transform their own lives.

I don't know about you, but I find these words both refreshing and encouraging.

Organic Qualities of the Church

The metaphors the Apostle Paul employs to describe the church are all life forms -- meaning they are organic (body, bride, family, household, living stones, etc.). This leads me to believe that the essence of the Church is therefore organic. Or at least the physical organic realm of creation has corresponding qualities that hold understanding and insight regarding the church. Maybe for every organic quality in the eco-system of our universe there is possibly a corresponding spiritual quality in the eco-system known as the Church.

Organic qualities such as simplicity, complexity, biotic potential, and self-organization just to name a few. What if like the physical and material realm they overlap, assimilate, and are interdependent in relation to one another in the spiritual realm? Just maybe these spiritual qualities operate within like the physical in the realms of simultaneity and synchronicity.

I'm convinced that within the church’s genetic code, all these qualities are employed for the health and well-being of the Church organism. The organic reality is as Howard Synder states in Decoding the Church “ that the church is a complex ecology of spiritual, physical, social, political, psychological, and economic dimensions.”

The Truth Isn't Sexy

I receive the Mustard Seed Associates online newsletter. Today there was an article by Si Johnston with this picture detailing the world-wide slave trade of the sex industry. The truth of this reality is not at all what most of us understand it to be. Did you know that slavery today is three times larger world wide then it was when William Wilberforce and his colleagues were fighting to rid the world of this evil. Johnston's article also concerns the Emerging Church and it's relationship to this issue.

Here is the article:
Even in our sophisticated 21st century world, slavery is worse than it has ever been. Having surpassed the drug trade and with a turnover of 9 billion dollars per year, human trafficking now represents the second biggest underground economy behind only the arms trade.

Its causes are complex and its depths are hard to plumb; however, it is not new. In the Bible, Joseph was sold into slavery and a little later Amos lambasted Israel for selling the needy into slavery for a few pairs of sandals. Fast forward to the 5th century and on Slemish Mountain only a few miles from where I sit and write this, St. Patrick experienced six years of bonded slavery when he first arrived in Ireland. More recently, and exactly two hundred years ago, some 11 million Africans were sold to the plantations in the West Indies and America to fund the greed of the British Empire. While a cursory reading of history shows many have been enslaved, few ever realise that it was wrong or at least speak up about it. One man in particular did—William Wilberforce. Through sheer persistence and creativity he succeeded in blowing the whistle on the trans-Atlantic slave-trade.

Sadly, today we have no William Wilberforce, but rather a slave trade that has multiplied in scale times three. I’ve spent the last few years living with the statistics of an evil that is careering across our globalised world making misery of the lives of millions. And yet out of all the numbers and stories, one young girl in this darkened underworld is the most important statistic. She is advertised as a mail-order bride; she is the ‘Kid as Industry’ moved next door whose body is put out for hourly rent; she is someone’s daughter; she is our sister.

Her story, if she told you while looking into your eyes, would have you do for her what you would want done for yourself. Her pain might have you rise at night from the comfort of your own bed and weep. Or still further, it may well have you sell all your possessions and give your money to the poor. Wilberforce wasn’t content with cap-tipping at the injustice, he was a creative loud mouth who stood against the odds in opposition to systemic dehumanising evil.

At a recent event I took part in, someone suggested we hold a conversation entitled “Is the Emerging Church middle class white boy intellectualism and mac computers or does it have a genuine concern for the poor and justice?” Perhaps surprisingly it was a well attended conversation which apparently continues to have unexpected implications for those who attended. Similarly, a couple of years ago, while he was preparing the manuscript for ‘Conversant with the Emerging Church’, I ended up parked beside Don Carson on a short-haul flight. During our now documented tete-a-tete, he leveled the criticism that the Emerging Church has too little theological substance and lacks sufficient enough organisation to bring about any social change of the sort catalysed by William Wilberforce and his Clapham Sect associates.

Carson wasn’t to know that only months earlier a collection of people, who would identify themselves as belonging to emerging church communities across London, gathered to learn more about modern day slavery. It was here in the same church that our community gathered and that Wilberforce used as his base from which to lobby government, that Protest4 began and subsequently the Truth Isn’t Sexy Campaign. In saying that, ‘meeting’ doesn’t constitute ‘acting,’ and we’re at a moment in time when the words of Jesus as recorded by Luke have a particular resonance for us in our world:

“The Spirit is upon me, because he has anointed me to preach good news to the poor. He has sent me to proclaim freedom to the prisoners and recovery of sight to the blind, to release the oppressed, to proclaim the year of the Lord’s favor.”
-Jesus

Wilberforce, surprised by the lack of support from fellow Christians concluded that they were culturally deluded as to what it meant to be a Christian. Jesus offers us a statement that seeks adoption into all our faith families and it needs to be primary, not just an archaic tag line in our polity. It’s these words that are tugging on the imagination and passion of the new abolitionist movement that rises in our day and which will prevent us believing and behaving ‘un-Christianly.’ This movement is beyond ‘events’ but like a siren, repeats the words of Jesus to those who would be ‘activists’ against injustice.

On the 20th March, The Truth Isn’t Sexy Campaign joined the echo of Wilberforce’s voice around the House of Commons exactly 200 years after he succeeded in garnering enough support to end slavery. Former Conservative Party leader and MP William Hague spoke of this new wave of abolitionists as he pointed out to a full sitting in the House, the need to take note and act against 21st century slavery. Hours later, we launched the campaign in the presence of MP’s and law enforcement agents in an adjoining parliamentary room.

Protest4 is not a charity or organisation. We have no employees or tangible resources. We gather under a vision of freedom, liberty, and redemption in the Protest For a more just world. You might say Protest4 is a spirited network. With presence in the UK, the USA, and Denmark, we’re inviting any and all who would add to our voice and efforts. We’ve recently held Freedom Day in Southern California and in connection with the Home Office are rolling out the Truth Isn’t Sexy Campaign in the UK. The campaign began while on a trip to Cambodia and seeing Western men draped with the bodies of young Khmer girls. I realised that it was market economics. Men create demand and traffickers/pimp rush to supply. Women believing the streets of the West to be paved with gold, reply to cleverly placed adverts for ‘work’ or fall into the hands of a deceitful ‘boyfriend.’ We believe that if we address this demand, we’ll simultaneously knock out the supply.

Finally, we’re asking that those who read this and learn of it, don’t just consume anti-trafficking measures and this human-rights issue as the next funky wave of campaigning to get on board with. God spare us from jumping off one bandwagon onto another every time something captures our imagination. Instead, let’s see this one through to the end and ensure that none ever again fall into the trap of commodification. Let none of us sit back in passivity but do all that we can to ensure that no one remains a slave—no one.

Ekklesial Leadership

From Len Hjalmarsen's site

http://nextreformation.com/wp-admin/images/leadership.jpg

An extremely profound description of leadership necessary for the Emerging Church. Thank you so much Len

National Day of Prayer

This being the National Day of Prayer I thought it would be good to rehearse some wonderful reasons why we all should pray illustrated for us Scripture. Here are just three to start with:

FIRST: TO OBEY - Because God expects us to pray. Jesus said in the Sermon on the Mount, "When you pray" (Matt.6:5). It is kind
of assumed by Jesus in using the word "when" that his disciples would pray. Using the word "if" instead of "when" would have suggested that it was optional, but not so. "When you pray," means it was expected that we would do just that.

SECOND: TO COMMUNE - "But when you pray, go into your room, close the door and pray to your Father" (Matt. 6:6). Being in a private room with someone often suggests intimacy and opportunity to converse (commune) with that individual. In this case it suggests getting alone with our Heavenly Father as his child, and just spend some time together talking.

THIRD: TO ALIGN - Prayer is more for our benefit, not God's. "For your Father knows what you need before you ask him," (Matt.6:8b). See, he already knows what we need. Our prayers are a matter of aligning our heart with his heart so that we might further deepen the relationship we have with him. And then Jesus goes on to teach how we are to this:

Matthew 6:9-15
Our Father in heaven, hallowed be your name.
Your kingdom come. Your will be done, on earth as it is in heaven.
Give us this day our daily bread.
And forgive us our debts, as we also have forgiven our debtors.
And do not bring us to the time of trial,but rescue us from the evil one.
For if you forgive others their trespasses, your heavenly Father will also forgive you;
but if you do not forgive others, neither will your Father forgive your trespasses. NRSV

One purpose of this prayer just might be for the aligning our hearts with God's heart resulting in a deepening of our relationship each day -- and thus strengthening the National Day of Prayer.

Have a blessed National Day of Prayer!!

The Organic Essence of the Church

In looking at the body metaphor, Greg Ogden asks the following questions:

Is Paul’s choice of the human body simply to be a nice analogy for the way the church is to function? Is Paul only saying that just as the body is an organic picture of interdependence, so the church should be? Or is there something deeper than metaphor that Paul has in mind?

Paul seems to be pointing to a deeper reality. Metaphors are often symbols that point to deeper realities, but the symbol is not the same as the reality. An example of this is when Jesus broke the bread at the Passover meal before his disciples and said, “This is my body given for you,” “We Protestants do not believe Jesus was speaking literally. The bread was not in actuality his body, but it was a symbol that pointed to his broken body.” In contrast, when it comes to referencing the church as the body of Christ, Paul intended much more than just a word picture. Reading 1 Corinthians 12:12 numerous times, I have subconsciously understood it in the following way: “For just as the body is one and has many members, and all the members of the body, though many, are one body, so it is with the church.” What is wrong with that? I emphasized (in italics) the way I have understood this verse to be. I have read church into the text because this is what I expected, since the church is Paul’s subject. But this is not Paul’s concluding phrase. He says, “so it is with Christ,” not the church. By interchanging Christ with the church, Paul is making the point, that the church is nothing less than the living extension of Jesus here on earth. The church and the resurrected, reigning, and living Jesus are inseparable. The church is not merely a human organization designated with the task of keeping the memory of their leader alive, but it is a fellowship of those who are members of Christ’s body giving viable expression to who He is. The church is an organism mystically fused to the living and reigning Christ who continues to reveal Himself in and through His people. Ray Stedman puts it this way: “The life of Jesus is still being manifest among people, but now no longer through an individual physical body, limited to one place on earth, but through a complex, corporate body called the church.”
As God’s household (oikos), the church is called to administrate kingdom economics in the process of bringing fulfillment to the larger eco-system, the created order. In order to complete this assignment, it is necessary for the church to perceive itself as a life giving and sustaining entity. In other words, the essence of the church is organic, and maybe for the purpose of completing its mission.

Sometime in the future I would like to delve more deeply into the organic essence of the church.

Missiology precedes Ecclesiology

I was asked by Len Hjalmarsen to write a response to the question; "Do you think missiology precedes ecclesiology, or is it the other way around?

Here is my response.

Len,

Michael Frost and Alan Hirsch in The Shaping of Things to Come established for me some real clarity regarding this issue. With their help I came to understand that missiology precedes ecclesiology and our Christology informs our missiology (p.209). I believe John 1:14 and Philippines 2:5-8 affirm this reality.

The supremacy of Christ demands that He is the center of all that the Church is and does -- the shaping influence. For me John 1:14 in THE MESSAGE describes for the Church its correct missiological paradigm:

The Word became flesh and blood,
and moved into the neighborhood.
We saw the glory with our own eyes,
the one-of-a-kind glory, like Father, like Son,
Generous inside and out, true from start to finish.

Philippians 2:5-8 describes how Christ fulfilled his mission by becoming "flesh and blood and moving into our human neighborhood" -- on an incarnational mission so to speak. He did this as He "emptied Himself, taking the form of a bond-servant, and being made in the likeness of men." (Phil.2:7 NASU) Christ's ecclesiological nature (form) was that of being a human being; inhabiting human form and likeness. Like Christ the church should take what ever form/structure necessary to facilitate the missio Dei (the mission of God); its missiological responsibility.

As further stated in John 1:14 the form (ecclesiology) must reflect Christ's glory in a way that is culturally observable in whatever neighborhood it finds itself. This glory in unlike any other glory -- "one-of-a-kind," as described in the remainder of the verse.

Every time the church manifests another order other than Christology, missiology, ecclesiology, it looses its missional edge and focus; becoming distracted by the forms and structures. Christ determines our mission, and our mission must shape our ecclesiology.

Praying for the Tragedy at Virginia Tech

Dear Lord, once again we are faced with a tragedy that makes no sense. May all those involved know your presence in this most difficult time. For the families and friends who lost loved ones may your peace and comfort be a reality as they walk through all the pain and agony that is now a part of their lives. Bring resolve and justice to bear for the sake of those suffering. In your name O Lord, Amen!

Following Jesus into the Culture

I'm currently making my way through An An Emergent Manifesto of Hope edited by Doug Pagitt and Tony Jones. This volume contains a number of divergent voices from what is known as the "Emergent Church;" a rising tide of individuals who seem extremely serious about the missio Dei "mission of God." For this reason in addition to others I consider myself among their number.

One compelling voice is that of Ryan Bolger assistant professor of church in contemporary culture in the School of Intercultural Studies at Fuller Theological Seminary. In addition to writing Chapter 11 of this volume, he teamed with Eddie Gibbs">in Emerging Churches: Creating Community in Postmodern Cultures

Chapter 11 is titled Following Jesus into Culture: Emerging Church as Social Movement. In this chapter Bolger describes one of the movements of the Reign of God as a communal movement.

He states that:

"Every activity Jesus performed he did in a sociopolitical context.Jesus could have simply sought to transform society at the macrolevel, but instead he created a microsociety to transform culture. This 24/7 community addressed all of life. As a new type of family, they practiced alternative politics, economics, and social structure. The Sermon on the Mount served as their founding charter

.
He goes on to suggest that churches involved within the kingdom of God are to embody the message of the good news by learning how to serve, how to forgive, how to love, and how to open up our homes.

When the church stresses the microlevel rather than the macrolevel there truly is a different way to be and live. It calls forth expressions of a living organism that now embodies that for which too long and too often has been proclaimed verbally. We who follow Jesus, as never before have the opportunity to express an entirely different way of life, rather than conforming to either the secular culture or that of Christendom were able to authentically enter into our neighborhoods up close and personal, loving people for Jesus' sake.

Maunday Thursday

Today is Maunday Thursday on the Liturgical Church calendar. A part of Passion Week that has been somewhat ignored by much of the Western Church in recent times. This morning at a meeting I attend the first Thursday of each month my friend Dennis Fuqua reminded us of the significance of Maundy Thursday. He shared that word Maundy comes from the Latin word from which we get our English word mandate. This is the day when we are reminded of and seek to make fresh the new mandate or commandment Jesus gave His followers in the upper room discourse.

John 13:34-35: "A new command I give you: Love one another. As I have loved you, so you must love one another. By this all men will know that you are my disciples, if you love one another."

We need to be reminded that this is a command that needs our attention, not just during Passion Week, but through out the rest of the year. May we embody it in a way that "the world might know." Thank you Dennis for the reminder.

The People Formerly Known as The Congregation

Bill Kinnon on his blog wrote the following and I thought it was worthy of our attention -- so I pass it on. Personally this speaks forthrightly to some of the issues that make the Body of Christ out of joint at times.

Let me introduce you to The People formerly known as The Congregation. There are millions of us.

We are people - flesh and blood - image bearers of the Creator - eikons, if you will. We are not numbers.

We are the eikons who once sat in the uncomfortable pews or plush theatre seating of your preaching venues. We sat passively while you proof-texted your way through 3, 4, 5 or no point sermons - attempting to tell us how you and your reading of The Bible had a plan for our lives. Perhaps God does have a plan for us - it just doesn't seem to jive with yours.

Money was a great concern. And, for a moment, we believed you when you told us God would reward us for our tithes - or curse us if we didn't. The Law is just so much easier to preach than Grace. My goodness, if you told us that the 1st century church held everything in common - you might be accused of being a socialist - and of course, capitalism is a direct gift from God. Please further note: Malachi 3 is speaking to the priests of Israel. They weren't the cheerful givers God speaks of loving.

We grew weary from your Edifice Complex pathologies - building projects more important than the people in your neighbourhood...or in your pews. It wasn't God telling you to "enlarge the place of your tent" - it was your ego. And, by the way, a multi-million dollar, state of the art building is hardly a tent.

We no longer buy your call to be "fastest growing" church in wherever. That is your need. You want a bigger audience. We won't be part of one.

Our ears are still ringing from the volume, but...Jesus is not our boyfriend - and we will no longer sing your silly love songs that suggest He is. Happy clappy tunes bear no witness to the reality of the world we live in, the powers and principalities we confront, or are worthy of the one we proclaim King of Kings and Lord of Lords.

You offered us a myriad of programs to join - volunteer positions to assuage our desire to be connected. We could be greeters, parking lot attendants, coffee baristas, book store helpers, children's ministry workers, media ministry drones - whatever you needed to fulfill your dreams of corporate glory. Perhaps you've noticed, we aren't there anymore.

We are The People formerly known as The Congregation. We have not stopped loving the Father, Son and Holy Spirit. Nor do we avoid "the assembling of the saints." We just don't assemble under your supposed leadership. We meet in coffee shops, around dinner tables, in the parks and on the streets. We connect virtually across space and time - engaged in generative conversations - teaching and being taught.

We live amongst our neighbours, in their homes and they in ours. We laugh and cry and really live - without the need to have you teach us how - by reading your ridiculous books or listening to your supercilious CDs or podcasts.

We don't deny Paul's description of APEPT leadership - Ephesians 4:11. We just see it in the light of Jesus' teaching in Mark 10 and Matthew 20 - servant leadership. We truly long for the release of servant leading men and women into our gifts as apostles, prophets, evangelists, pastors and teachers. We believe in Peter's words that describe us all as priests. Not just some, not just one gender.

We are The People formerly known as The Congregation. We do not hate you. Though some of us bear the wounds you have inflicted. Many of you are our brothers and our sisters, misguided by the systems you inhabit, intoxicated by the power - yet still members of our family. (Though some are truly wolves in sheep's clothing.)

And, as The People formerly known as The Congregation, we invite you to join us on this great adventure. To boldly go where the Spirit leads us. To marvel at what the Father is doing in the communities where He has placed us. To live the love that Jesus shows us.

A Unique Kind of Conference

I attended a conference March 23-25th in Los Angeles, California which was something of an anomaly. Let me take a few moments and give you a heads up – because it is one of the best I’ve had the privilege of participating in.

The conference is titled “Wineskins” and occurs twice a year; once in the spring and again in the fall. It is sponsored by The Church of the Servant King who reside in the Gardena area of LA in intentional community. They have faithfully and missionally incarnated the good news of Jesus in this area for nearly thirty years.

The only similarity this conference has with others I’ve attended is that they invite someone from the outside to be the main speaker. This Wineskins, the speaker was Lee C. Camp, professor at Lipscomb University in Nashville, and author of Mere Discipleship: Radical Christianity in a Rebellious World. (A book I would highly recommend to anyone serious about their faith).

The Conference begins on Friday at 6:00 p.m. and ends around 2:00 p.m. on Sunday. Here are some features of Wineskins that make it unique as a conference. 1) They ask that all participants commit to being present for the entire conference. If for some reason an individual is unable or unwilling to make that commitment they are encouraged not to attend. 2) Wineskins limits attendance to 44 people. 3) Spouses are encouraged to pack separately because they will not be rooming together. They have men rooming with other men and women rooming with other women. Even the speaker rooms with others. These three things are done in order to achieve the objectives of koinonia and dialogue amongst the participants. Another unique feature is that the speaker does not receive an honorarium, but his travel and other expenses are covered. The desire is that the speaker is attending more out of a calling or mission than just for monetary reasons.

The speaker is allowed to share on anything he/she chooses. The only criteria for subject matter, is that it challenge and cause the participants to think and ask questions; both on individual and corporate levels.

At the outset, each person is assigned a small group with three others. These groups meet regularly; about 8 or 9 times during the conference to answer pre-scripted questions for the purpose of getting to know one another. Groups are also encouraged to discuss the subject matter the speaker presents at the teaching sessions. And they go to lunch together once during the conference. The small groups, in addition to small number of people in attendance seemed to facilitate “koinonia” at an extremely high level.

As one who has attended multiple church conferences, it was amazing to observe and experience the high degree of participation when a conference is limited to just 44 people. Each person was able to be fully engaged throughout the conference even when time restraints became an issue.

I left the Wineskins knowing I had experienced connection with most of those attending as well as the speaker. And in the process of connecting I learned not only new things, but made new friends who shared in the experience with me. I felt I had experienced something of koinonia as opposed to another big event. Rather than leaving thinking; “been there, done that,” I left thinking, “I’d like to do that again.”

What is Missional?

There are many things being said and written about what it is to be missional as a church both individually and corporately. I'm currently reading Dan Kimball's new book They Like Jesus But Not the Church, which I find extremely refreshing -- particularly from his perspective as a pastor of a larger congregation. On page 20 he writes the following regarding the question, "what is Missional?"

He begins by stating that "to be missional is more than just to evangelize." And offers the following in ways of thinking concerning this term..

• Being missional means that the church sees itself as being missionaries, rather than having a missions department, and that we see ourselves as missionaries right where we live.
• Being missional means that we see ourselves as representatives of Jesus "sent" into our communities, and that the church aligns everything it does with the missio dei (mission of God).
• Being missional means we see the church not as a place we go only on Sunday, but as something we are throughout the week.
• Being missional means that we understand we don't "bring Jesus" to people but that we realize Jesus is active in culture and we join him in what he is doing.
• Being missional means we are very much in the world and engaged in culture but are not conforming to the world.
• Being missional means we serve our communities, and that we build relationships with the people in them, rather than seeing them as evangelistic targets.
• Being missional means being all the more dependent on Jesus and the Spirit through prayer, the Scriptures, and each other in community.

Much of the above thoughts we've discussed earlier, but to have listed together helps our overall perspective. This is not an exhaustive list for sure, and maybe you might want to add to this list. Feel free to add to and make comments as we dialogue together in what it is for us to be a "missional" people.

The Forgotten Ways: Reactivating the Missional Church by Alan Hirsch, Brazos Press: 2006

The Forgotten Ways was birthed in the trenches of the author’s own experience as a church planter and denominational leader. In the throws of ministry he was confronted with questions concerning the early church in regard its overall growth and expansion. How did as few as 25,000 adherents in AD 100 go to as high as 20,000,000 by AD 300? This led him to ask the same questions regarding the Church in China from 1950 till the mid 1980s; from 2 million adherents to 60 – 80 million.

Delving into this dilemma the author discovered what he calls Apostolic Genius or mDNA (the built-in life force and guiding mechanism of God’s people) and the living components or elements that comprise it. The general assumption in this book is that just as the human body carries its genetic code within a DNA strand so God’s people carry within themselves the same potencies that energized the early church and are currently manifest in the underground Chinese church. The problem is that we have simply forgotten how access and trigger it.

As Howard Snyder has said, “Hirsch’s analysis is on target historically, biblically and theologically,” as he describes and clarifies in practitioner language the Apostolic Genius in contemporary context. For those who are serious about being a part of a church planting movement in the 21^st Century this book should be considered a must read.

In the back of the book the reader will find an addendum and glossary extremely helpful in clarifying both current terminology and practice regarding the missional paradigm we find ourselves in. For some this volume will offend, but for most it should be a refreshing wind propelling us forward in these emergent times.